Electrical connector assemblies are used in a wide variety of applications wherein a connector is mounted on a chassis such as a panel, a circuit board or the like. The connector mates with a complementary mating connector mounted on an opposing panel or through an opening in the opposing. panel. Problems in some such applications include insufficient spacing between the circuit board and the opposing panel to allow the connector to be mounted on the side of the circuit board facing the opposing panel. A solution to insufficient spacing between the board and the opposing panel is to mount the connector about an opening in the board on the side of the board facing away from the opposing panel as disclosed herein.
In some such applications, the connector must be mated with the mating connector under "blind" mating conditions, and guide means are provided on the connector for guiding the mating connector into proper connecting or mated position. For instance, the circuit board mounted connector may be in the form of a receptacle connector and have a peripheral funnelshaped guide means about the periphery of the receptacle for guiding a mating plug connector into the receptacle through the opening in the panel.
Problems have been encountered in providing circuit board mounted connectors with appropriate guide means for the mating connector. With circuit board mounted connectors, the connector includes terminals which are connected, as by soldering, to appropriate circuit traces on the side of the circuit board facing the opposing panel. The guide means on the connector for guiding the mating connector can interfere with the soldering process for the terminals of the circuit board mounted connector. In other words, if the connectors are mated through an opening in the circuit board, the terminals must be soldered to circuit traces on the board outside the opening. If the guide means flares outwardly of the opening, the guide means either will interfere with the soldering process or the terminals must be soldered at points unduly spaced outwardly of the connector to avoid interference by the guide means. The present invention is directed to solving these problems by a unique connector assembly wherein the guide means is mounted to the connector after the soldering process.